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Publisher<br />
Tim Lindquist<br />
Editor in Chief<br />
Greg Off<br />
greg@hardcoregamermag.com<br />
Art Director<br />
Terry Wolfinger<br />
Senior Editor<br />
Thomas Wilde<br />
Editors<br />
Anthony Mertz Danny Cowan<br />
Dave Hulegaard David Brothers<br />
Geson Hatchett Iaian Ross<br />
Jason Venter James Cunningham<br />
Jeremy Peeples Ken Horowitz<br />
Steven Kent Thomas Shin<br />
Elizabeth Ellis Alicia Ashby<br />
Tim Kinneen<br />
Artists<br />
Amadeo Garcia III<br />
Production Director<br />
Jody Seltzer<br />
Production Artists<br />
John McKechnie Bryan Neff<br />
Brady Hartel Gary Harrod<br />
Marc Reigel<br />
Translator<br />
Elizabeth Ellis<br />
Ad sales<br />
Burr Hilsabeck<br />
415-412-5685<br />
burr@hardcoregamermag.com<br />
Ad coordinator<br />
Martin Gilbert<br />
Customer Service<br />
Judy Snow<br />
Hardcore Gamer® Magazine is published monthly by DoubleJump®<br />
Publishing, Inc. at 21407 NE Union Hill Rd, Redmond, WA 98053.<br />
Periodicals postage pending at Redmond WA and at additional mailing offices.<br />
POSTMASTER: send address changes to DoubleJump Publishing, PO Box 146,<br />
Redmond, WA 98073. “Hardcore Gamer” and “DoubleJump” are trademarks<br />
or registered trademarks of DoubleJump Publishing Incorporated. All rights<br />
reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any<br />
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,<br />
recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written<br />
permission from DoubleJump Publishing. DoubleJump Books is a division of<br />
DoubleJump Publishing, Inc.<br />
DoubleJump Publishing and the authors have made every effort to ensure<br />
that the information contained in this magazine is accurate. However, the<br />
publisher makes no warranty, either expressed or implied, as to the accuracy,<br />
effectiveness, or completeness of the material in this magazine; nor does the<br />
publisher assume liability for damages, either incidental or consequential, that<br />
may result from using the information in this magazine. Questions regarding<br />
operation of the game software and hardware should be directed to the<br />
support numbers provided by the game and device manufacturers in their<br />
documentation.<br />
Printed in the United States of America<br />
DJPubba_Tim Lindquist<br />
I must apologize. I still haven’t been able to do part 2<br />
of the Vectrex article. This time it was lack of time. I’ve<br />
got the bits and parts which I think will do the trick,<br />
but regular magazine business has been keeping me<br />
away from the wotrkbench. Plus, Disgaea 2 arrived at<br />
DoubleJump Books for strategy guidance and I couldn’t<br />
not check that out.<br />
Now Playing: Disgaea 2, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow<br />
Roger Danish_Greg Off Wolfie_Terry Wolfinger<br />
Wanderer_Thomas Wilde Lynxara_Alicia Ashby Metalbolt_Anthony Mertz<br />
They say gamers have two jobs. I’ve moved on from that<br />
to the point where I have a second life. It’s actually kind<br />
of sad, especially when I find myself treating gym time<br />
as a particularly annoying minigame. Of course, when I<br />
play video games, it somehow translates to me paying<br />
off all my student loans in the course of a single month.<br />
I’m that much better at them than you.<br />
Now Playing: Shadow Hearts: From the New World,<br />
Meteos, Max Payne, Silent Hill 4<br />
Mogis_Tim Kinneen<br />
This month I imported a Super Famicom, which is<br />
awesome for two reasons. First of all, I’ve gotten a<br />
chance to replay a lot of the classics that I grew up with,<br />
like Mother 2 and Final Fantasy VI. Secondly, it allows<br />
me try out games that never came out in the States, like<br />
Super Bomberman 3 and Seiken Densetsu 3. Navigating<br />
RPG menus has been kind of tough, but I think I’m<br />
getting the hang of it. Who knows, maybe I’ll be reading<br />
Japanese a year from now!<br />
Racewing_Geson Hatchett<br />
In the space of a week, both my PSP and my Internet<br />
service have broken down, and my computer may or may<br />
not be far behind. Wait a second... wasn’t my degree in<br />
computer science supposed to prevent things like this?<br />
Now Playing: Tales of Legendia, Sonic Riders (Xbox),<br />
counting down the days to Super Princess Peach<br />
Shoegazer_Dave Hulegaard<br />
This industry requires a fair amount of travel, which<br />
is why it’s imperative to always take along an ample<br />
supply of music for the road. Though my selection<br />
varies, the one CD that always makes the trip with me<br />
is Midsummer’s Moon Shadow EP. Check them out on<br />
MySpace if your musical tastes fall slightly left of center.<br />
Now Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories,<br />
Grandia III, Chrono Cross (it’s a Square-Enix kinda month)<br />
KouAidou_Elizabeth Ellis<br />
Who hyper-focuses? Me. I do.<br />
Now Playing: Grandia, Grandia II, Grandia III<br />
It’s weird to see how so many of our peers in the press<br />
get so angry and jaded so quickly. Have they forgotten<br />
that they get the privilege and pleasure of experiencing,<br />
playing and writing about one of the greatest hobbies<br />
that ever was? Sure we have to muddle through our share<br />
of stinkers a lot of the time, but at the end of the day,<br />
we get to do what we love, which is a rare thing.<br />
Now Playing: Metal Gear Solid: Subsistence, BLACK,<br />
Kingdom Hearts II, Daxter<br />
2006 is turning into a weird, weird year. No booth babes<br />
at E3? Good Naruto games? A deluge of average-to-good<br />
PSP titles? It’s got me suspicious. We could be living in the<br />
end times, people. If there’s someone you know that you<br />
suspect could be the Antichrist, I’d suggest keeping a close<br />
eye on him or her this year.<br />
Now Playing: Grandia III, Generation of Chaos, Comic<br />
Party Portable<br />
4thletter_David Brothers Arlieth_Thomas Shin<br />
Man, Ubisoft is coming extremely correct this year. Ghost<br />
Recon Advanced Warfighter, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of<br />
WWII, and Splinter Cell Double Agent all look extremely<br />
sick. Now, someone just needs to buy the rights to 100<br />
Bullets, spiffy it up with some sort of 2D/3D fusion, and<br />
go 360.<br />
Now Playing: Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Final<br />
Fantasy Tactics Advance<br />
James_James Cunningham<br />
I bought a $400 game system back in November, and so<br />
far the best things for it are $5-$10 games. This isn’t<br />
a complaint about the quality of the retail games but<br />
rather an appreciation of just how cool Live Arcade is.<br />
Now if MS can just persuade SNK to put Twinkle Star<br />
Sprites on there, I’ll be a very happy gamer. 4L: 100<br />
Bullets? I’d be happy for The Red Star.<br />
Now Playing: Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Chibi Robo,<br />
Gunstar Super Heroes<br />
I’m still playing World of Warcraft! The addiction within<br />
the addiction has become the in-game Battleground<br />
feature, where you team up and go head-to-head against<br />
10 other players (Alliance scum!) in a capture-the-flag<br />
scenario (yet another incentive to keep leveling your<br />
character). <strong>Games</strong> I’m looking forward to: Brady Bunch<br />
Kung Fu (who doesn’t want to punch Jan?!), Jaws (which I<br />
played a bit of at E3), and The Outfit, because reducing a<br />
town to rubble sounds pretty damn cool. W00t!<br />
Ubisoft has offended me with the piece of total trash<br />
that is Rainbow Six: Lockdown. It forsakes everything<br />
that makes the R6 games, the R6 games! At least I’ve still<br />
got Battlefield 2, and Bahamut Lagoon because it’s more<br />
addictive than any game should be. Byuu? View? Makes no<br />
difference to me, as long as I’ve got my dragons!<br />
Now Playing: All said games, minus Lockdown, plus Red Dog.<br />
I’ve been out of commission with a couple of projects related<br />
to Japan’s annual Olympics of Fighting <strong>Games</strong>: Super Battle<br />
Opera. This year, USA gets to send three teams to Tokyo (two<br />
for Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and one for Tekken 5: Dark<br />
Resurrection), and we’ll be covering it from the inside! Tune<br />
in to Luv2Game.com for updates!<br />
Now Playing: King of Fighters XI, Naruto: NarUltimate Hero 2<br />
Ashura_Brady Hartel<br />
This time I’m back... with actual writing! This month I got<br />
to write a rather goofy piece on my most favorite puzzle<br />
game evar, Battle Balls, and I didn’t even make any kind<br />
of joke about male genitals! Be proud! My brain is still<br />
dripping out of the side of my head from all the Metal Gear<br />
Online I’ve been playing, though I devoted some alone time<br />
with Megaman: Maverick Hunter X. Is it just me or does it<br />
sound like he’s saying ‘Troglodyte’ instead of ‘Shotgun Ice?’<br />
Currently Playing: So much MGO that it leads to exploding<br />
brains. Oh, and M: MHX.<br />
HonestGamer_Jason Venter Jeremy_Jeremy Peeples<br />
So they delayed Twilight Princess. Again. I’m not sure<br />
how I feel about that. I want the game to be great. No,<br />
I want it to be better than great. If this delay does that,<br />
fantastic. If it doesn’t... I’ll buy it anyway.<br />
Now Playing: Civilization IV, Wild Arms 4<br />
Hitoshura_Iaian Ross Sardius_Danny Cowan<br />
Liz took the words right out of my mouth. How else<br />
can I explain why I don’t have any pages this issue? The<br />
answer is I’ve been focusing solely on one game from the<br />
moment I wake up to the moment I sleep. Every day. For<br />
almost a month.<br />
Now Playing: Disgaea 2<br />
After neglecting it for a couple of months, I’ve been<br />
hooked on Mr. Driller 2. It’s got just the right amount of<br />
depth to keep me entertained between marathon sessions<br />
of Fire Pro Wrestling 2 and Project Gotham Racing 2. To<br />
prepare for Subsistence, I’ve also been taking in regular<br />
amounts of both Metal Gear Solid games. I haven’t had<br />
this much fun with a Kojima in games since my Tenkoji-<br />
Team 3D bouts in FPW 2.<br />
Recipe for Valentine’s Day success: surprising her a week<br />
in advance with Bust A Move DS and a bag of Ghirardelli<br />
chocolates. My fiancee loved the game so much she<br />
wasn’t even all that angry when I ended up eating most<br />
of the chocolate! Sorry honey, it had to be done.<br />
Now Playing: Bust A Move DS, Thunder in Paradise (CD-i),<br />
Homph Glomph (Chocolate)<br />
VOLUME 1_ISSUE 9_WARM BUN
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